Long is the Way
by masamunable
Summary: A half-crazed Azula is pursued through the Earth Kingdom wilderness by a near-army of good guys. But Zuko's not the only one with a rough past and confused heritage; and he's not the only one with a destiny . . .
1. Chapter 1

Kanzo rubbed his hands together to try to keep warm, to little effect. The rain had sunk right into his clothes through the cracks in his second rate armour and was now trickling down his back; and the moisture on his hands made it impossible to produce any heat at all. Growing up in the low, flat farm lands of the central Fire Nation did nothing to prepare a soul for the cold, wet weather that seemed to plague the mountainous northern Earth Kingdom all the year round; and he had not had enough field experience before Sozin's Armistice to know what to expect.

His fidgeting attracted the attention of the guard on the other side of the tent, who chuckled wryly. He could tell by the faint mist that was rising from the joints of her uniform that she was a firebender, though with her faceplate on he didn't know whether he knew her or not. Probably not; he'd only been at the camp a couple of weeks and there were far more people there than could be met in that time. Anyway, the firebenders normally got sent to patrol the perimeters while their non-bending colleagues did all the hard wor-

"Platypus-bear skin."

It took a moment for this to sink in, and when it did it still didn't make any sense. "Excuse me?"

"My husband couldn't bend, and he said platypus-bear skin was perfect for this kind of terrain. Light enough to fit under the armour and warmer than Agni's armpit, as he used to put it. And it's waterproof." She slid her visor up halfway to give him a sympathetic smile and Kanzo felt his resentment drain away almost instantly.

"Thank you, uh-"

"Onda. And don't mention it! Been a few cold places myself, you know? Used to be in the Northern Fleet. Doesn't matter whether you bend or not; up there we all had to wear it." She grinned at the memory. "It's good stuff, but it doesn't half smell."

"Like Agni's armpit?"

The woman laughed. "Yeah, like Agni's armpit! Huh, look at you! I wouldn't have guessed you for a comedian." Kanzo turned red and looked at his boots in a way that reminded Onda very much of her early days in the Fire Guard, a new cadet at the mercy of her seniors. He started shuffling and stamping his feet again, and Onda felt a surge of fondness for the boy. She decided to help him out.

She stood away from the side of the tent and pulled back one of the flaps, gesturing him inside. Kanzo's mouth fell open in horror.

"We can't go in _there_!"

"Sure we can. My friend Lu-Zin's had this post for two months and he says that she never even moves, just sits there all day. She won't know we're there, and nobody else comes this far up if they can avoid it." Kanzo didn't look convinced. "Look, you want to stay out here?"

The sky gave a helpful crack of thunder, and the rain doubled in intensity. Taking a nervous glance around, Kanzo slipped into the tent like a child trespassing in a school staffroom. Smiling and rolling her eyes, Onda strolled in after him, tying the tent flap down behind her. Outside the wind snarled through the sparse trees and hammered the rain onto the outer skin of the tent, but it was sturdy and well fastened and showed no sign of pulling out. On the inside it was dark, but marginally warmer and out of the bitter rain. Onda picked a spot on the floor and sat down heavily, pulling off her helmet in the process. Kanzo followed her example, albeit more timidly, straining his eyes in the darkness to find the tent's inhabitant. Onda stretched her arms and started a fire in her cupped hands, with little flare for the newbie. The flickering light filled the tent, and Kanzo nearly screamed.

Princess Azula, rightful ruler of the fire nation and symbol of hope to the rebel cause was sitting bolt upright in a chair not two feet from his back. At first he thought she was staring at him, but when he startled back (nearly landing in Onda's fire) her eyes didn't follow his trajectory. Her arms and legs were tied to the supports; but with fabric rather than steel, suggesting it was for protection and not restraint. Her hair was loose and unkempt, fringe falling haphazardly into her vacant eyes- an expression Kanzo had seen before, when news of his brothers death at the gates of Ba Sing Sei had reached their mother. It had been that sullen, empty look as much as his brother's memory that had guided him to the army barracks, and then with the dissenters into the desolate mountains in the north. It was hard to reconcile the brilliant strategist and hero who had brought those walls crashing down single-handedly with the girl who sat before him. She was so _young_. Younger than him, even.

"Young, isn't she?" Kanzo started again, and span around to face Onda, who enjoyed another laugh at his expense. "You're so jumpy! Maybe you should cut back on the Fire Flakes." He nodded sheepishly and shuffled closer to the fire, taking his first look at his benefactor. Onda was good looking, if slightly rugged, with typical Fire-Nation features; age-wise she couldn't have been much more than thirty-five. "Now you're thinking that I'm young for a widow, huh?"

Kanzo quietly wondered if Onda was one of these new mind-benders he'd heard rumours about. "Um . . ."

"Four years ago, now."

"I'm sorry."

Onda gave a half-smile. "Don't be. We were happy while it lasted, and that's about as much as anyone gets, right? I'll see him again." They both watched the fire for a moment.

"My brother died at Ba-Sing-Sei, before the Princess took it." Kanzo offered quietly. "My father died before that securing the colonies on the East coast." He stared at the fire until his vision stopped blurring, and when he looked up again Onda's face was tight, as was her voice.

"Lot of people lost a lot, huh? We gave everything we had. Then little Zuko comes along and decides, hey, why don't we just give it all back? Like none of it meant anything. Firelord my ass. Ozai might have been a dining-room general, but I bet he at least respected the sacrifices the people were making for the war, even if he didn't share them. And Azula! She never sent anyone to a battlefield she wasn't fighting on herself. And we were winning! Then what? Some spoiled little brat just waltzes into the throne room! He didn't even win the Agni Kai for succession, I hear. I tell you what, if I ever met that idiot face to face . . ." She rubbed the bridge of her nose, and her face relaxed. "Sorry, kiddo. It just gets to me, thinking about it. But I guess that's why we're here and not sunning ourselves on Ember Island, huh?"

"Yeah."

Outside, the wind had calmed a little and the fall of rain gentled, and the rasping breathing noise that their clamour had masked suddenly seemed to fill the tent out of nowhere, but Kanzo realised they'd been going on almost since they entered the room. Both Onda and Kanzo jumped this time, launching to their feet and the other side of the tent.

The princess hadn't moved, but now her eyes were definitely trained on them, or more specifically the fire burning in Onda's hand. Her breathing got faster until it stopped altogether, then her head rocked back and she let out the most unearthly shriek either of them had ever heard. Then her head sank forward, and she looked for all the world like nothing had even happened. The two shaken guards looked at each other for a terrified second, neither sure of what to do next. Kanzo took a step towards the princess's bound form, and then when she didn't react, another.

Kanzo was only half way there when he felt the air around him heating up, but Onda understood what it meant before he did. She threw herself towards the boy as the smell of burning filled the air, smoke rising from the hands and mouth of the princess as the chair warped and cracked and the canvas of the tent blackened and shrank under the sudden, intense heat. It was all of a few seconds between that first horrifying scream and the room igniting, and then exploding, wave after wave of fire pulsing out, incinerating the tent's walls and furnishings. The two figures, one wrapped around the other, seemed to stand in an eddy like a rock in a stream, but the space they occupied grew narrower and narrower until it finally disappeared, and the fire surged on and out, burning long after there was anything left to burn.

* * *

The firebending patrols were prompt in arriving at the scene. They worked to control and subdue the blaze, which extended across the barren shrub land fifty meters in every direction and was, despite the rain, still burning blue in some places. They fought to keep the fire from spreading downhill towards the camp, and their battle was so intense they did not see the figure that lurched unharmed from it's epicenter towards the deeper, darker forest on the shielded eastern side of the mountain; a mistake they would regret deeply when General Zhan arrived at the area an hour later.

Azula could barely stand, and it was more animal instinct than conscious intent that got her to the edge of the forest, and then to the river that ran down the mountain. Her skin was burning, the heat in her chest and head was unbearable, so it was with relief she threw herself in. The cool water cleared her head slightly, and she lay gripping the shore as the world span bewilderingly about her, unable to understand where she was or how she had gotten there. She tried desperately to focus, but her mind refused to align itself properly, and all she could really grasp was that she needed to run, though every part of her felt weak.

So she picked herself up, the water in her scorched clothes evaporating almost immediately, and half-ran half-fell down the mountain-side, from what and to where she didn't know.

* * *

The small group of women in green clothes who had been watching the activities and movement of the troops from the opposite peak for some time also noticed the fire, and its colour. The leader wrote a letter and tied it with a black ribbon while the rest of the group scrambled to pack their camp.

Suki was sliding the scroll into the pouch on the messenger-hawk's back when she noticed Ty-Lee standing uncharacteristically still, watching the fire. She walked up to the girl and prodded her gently in the arm. Ty Lee blinked and then grinned her trademark air-headed grin. "Sorry boss! I got distracted." She saluted with clumsy enthusiasm and bounded off to load her sleeping-bag onto her mongoosedragon, and Suki dismissed the idea that Ty-Lee had been feeling conflicted before it had even formed. Hell, it was hard to imagine the girl could fit enough thoughts in her head at the same time for two of them to conflict with each other.

She put the cap on the end of the scroll container and launched the bird into the sky. She watched it for a moment, reflecting that this was the first non-personal flight it had made in months, and wondered if it even remembered the way to the firlord's palace. Sure enough it set off south west and Suki smiled with satisfaction at the thought that soon she might be able to go home, or even better- to the South Pole. They could leave the rebels to the Earth Kingdom army, and the hunt might even end before dawn.

Hawky cut his way through the rough winds down towards the plains with his message, which was short for all its significance.

_Zuko,_

_We've found her._

* * *

AN: Hey! This is my first semi-serious attempt to write something. I felt, like a lot of people, that Azula's story lacked resolution (though I think that was intentional- a "make it up for yourself" kind of thing, and I'm quite an obliging sort.) So here's me jumping on the bandwagon before it gets too crowded!


	2. Chapter 2

General Zhan surveyed the area where the princess' tent had stood until two hours ago. Between his firebenders and the rain the flames had subsided, and the smouldering ruins were now cool enough to investigate. His own fury had had time to calm as well; from the mens account he could see they had reacted as well as could be expected. The blaze had not started small and been allowed to grow by lazy or incompetent guards, as he had thought, but had formed instantaneously. One had to marvel at the sheer power that it would have taken- Azula's reputation was not exaggerated. But could even she have survived this? He was almost afraid of what he was going to find.

"Scour the area. Focus on the wreckage around the tent; I want to know what happened here within the hour." One of the guards, a man named Lu-Zin (and what was he doing here, anyway? Zhan had specifically ordered only perimeter patrol should come to the site), relayed this to the head of the patrol, who nodded briskly and began organising the scene into quadrants and allocating people to go through them. The general rubbed his eyes. The darkness was going to make thourough investigation near-impossible until morning, or even later if this damn cloud cover didn't lift, and he knew that conclusive information would be longer in coming.

This was a complete disaster, and in fact the entire endeavour had been plagued by misfortune from the start. The princess his men had taken from the secure mental facility on the Dragon's Archipelago was about as far from a shining beacon of hope as one could get. He had wanted a unifying voice to lead his rebels against the usurper, and royal blood to lend credibility to his cause; what he had gotten was a catatonic fifteen year old girl who had to be forced to eat and lead by the hand everywhere she was to go. He'd had to station her as far as possible from the main camp just to keep knowledge of her condition from the troops, and even so rumour had spread.

"Sir! We've found something." Lu-Zin was running towards him from the tent area; the man was pale as death, and seemed upset.

"What is it?"

"It's the guards, I think."

The General followed him to the gutted tent, picking his way around the patches where embers still sputtered and smoked in the rain. At first he didn't see what Lu-Zin was talking about, but on closer inspection yes, that might well be the melted remains of Fire nation armour. There were two bodies one on top of the other; the one on top was scorched beyond recognition. The one underneath was less badly burned; enough of his face was left to determine that he had been young, and afraid.

"The one on top was Onda, sir. She . . . she must have been protecting the boy. Kuzon, I think his name was. He was new."

Zhan's eyes narrowed. "Onda? What was she doing here? I don't put my Fireguard on sentry duty!"

"She swa . . . she swapped with me, General. This was my post."

The General turned towards Lu-Zin, working hard to control his fury. Onda had been a laidback sort of woman, but she was a damn good firebender and had been very popular among the troops; and moreover she had served Zhan well for eight years. It was only the look on Lu-Zin's face that kept his anger in check. The man was near tears.

Zhan sighed and turned back to the carnage in front of them. There was no point in getting angry; he had always been aware that the men traded shifts, and he had always turned a blind eye. It was simply bad luck that had put one of his best men in harms way, nothing more. And Onda's presence gave him some insight. The thought had crossed his mind, when he first saw that blue inferno, that someone might have been tormenting the princess; that the blaze had been provoked. But Onda would never have condoned such a thing, nor by inaction allowed it to happen. Azula had done this herself; but why? "Is there any sign of the princess?"

"Nuh-not yet, sir."

"Well, have the men start searching the mountain. If she's dead, there's nothing we can do here till morning either way. If she's alive, the more time we waste here the harder it will be to find her."

"Yes, sir . . ." Lu-Zin hesitated, and it was clear he had something to say but was afraid to push his luck.

"Out with it."

"Onda and Kuzon, sir. Can we . . . can I go and fetch some men to get them? I'm no bender sir, I can't see in this light, so . . ." he broke off. Lu-Zin was a bluff man, and a good soldier, but the night's events had shaken him badly, and Onda had been a good friend.

Zhan sighed again. "Alright. We'll have a proper ceremony at dawn. But do as I told you, first; if the Princess is out there, she won't last long on her own." Lu-Zin gave a smart salute, and went to find the patrol Captain. Zhan turned and began the trek back down to the Earth Kingdom ruins that formed their base camp; and behind him the black smoke rose into a blacker sky.

* * *

The Kyoshi warriors traveled swiftly and silently towards the mountain's foot. Suki had decided to ascend up the gentler slope on the eastern side of the mountain, where the thick forests would give them cover and camoflage. Hopefully they could reach the smouldering clearing without incident, but even if they did run into perimeter patrols they could deal with it. Nobody would notice the missing guards quickly enough to sound an alert if everything else went according to the plan; which was to rush in, snatch the princess from her place just beneath the mountain's summit and leave; making as little fuss as possible. The extremely light security at the princess' tent site was what made this possible, but it also made Suki nervous. Surely she should be under heavier guard? But it would not be unlike Azula to arrogantly assume she would not need protection. Well, things had changed since she'd last faced the Kyoshi. For one, the princess had entirely lost her mind; and even in the event that she had regained her sanity (or had she only pretended to lose it to avoid prison? It was possible), the kyoshi warriors were now trained in methods perfect for dealing with her. There was good reason to hope that she could be recaptured this very night.

Unfortunately, life is never so smooth. They encountered their first problems immediately upon entering the thick forest; it was simply too dark. Mongoosedragons could see well enough even on a moonless night such as this one, and they had managed sure footedly down their own neighbouring peak and across the marshy and treacherous river valley below. But the forest canopy totally eclipsed the already limited light; Suki's own creature stumbled dangerously over a root at the lighter edge of the forest, and as they reached it's depths Yuna's fell completely, hurting it's own leg and nearly crushing the young warrior. There was no choice but to turn back and wait till morning.

Disheartened, they made their way more slowly back down, to the abandoned yellowstone settlement that emerged from the forest roots like it was a part of the mountain itself. They found a large building that must have been a barn or store-house of some kind, and there they tied and blindfolded the mongoosedragons. The warriors themselves found a less draughty building with a lower ceiling nearby, and there set up camp.

In the dour atmosphere that had descended, Ty-Lee's boundless enthusiasm was not received with the usual mixture of patient fondness and exasperation.

"This place must be reaaally old! I wonder who made it?"

The other five girls looked at each other wearily. Suki rolled her eyes and humoured Ty-Lee; the girl was worse when she was upset. "Earthbenders."

"Wow. Where d'you suppose they are now?"

"Dead."

Ty-Lee gasped in horror. "No! What happened to them?"

Suki squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples. "I don't **know**. Maybe there was a flood, or a famine. Maybe a disease got them, or they were all so **annoyingly inquizitive** that a neighbouring village **strangled them all to death**."

Despite the obvious threat, Ty Lee seemed genuinely determined to ask another question; but Yuna, who was sore from her fall and too tired to bear what would be another in a long line of loud dressing-downs for Ty Lee quickly put a hand over the girls mouth and wearily intervened. "C'mon Suki, lighten up. You know what the elders always say. 'A questioning mind finds the flower of truth amidst the long grass of deceit', and all that." She judiciously witheld their homilies on patience.

Sura smiled and rolled over towards the conversation. "You know, I always thought that was kind of a stretch. All of Elder Rodan's wisdom seems to revolve around gardening, have you noticed that? 'The vine of suffering and labour bears the sweetest grapes,' 'the aphid of iniquity will always be devoured by the ladybird of justice', that sort of thing."

Yuna cracked an incredulous grin. "I've never heard that last one! He never said that, did he?"

This broke Suki's frown, at last. "He really did. I heard it, too; it was when Sura and I went to tell him we were leaving the island to help with the war effort. I think it meant he was proud of us." She thought of her hometown with affection and some longing; Elder Rodan's long and often wandering lectures had been a staple of her childhood which she'd had little patience for at the time, but she wouldn't have minded one now. She sighed and turned to Ty-Lee. "I'm sorry Ty-Lee, I shouldn't have snapped at you. I'm just in a bad mood; I wanted to finish this damned mission and go home tonight. I didn't mean to take it out on you."

Ty-Lee nodded cheerfully, and Yuna finally removed her hand from the girl's mouth. "You don't have to apologise! I totally didn't notice."

Yuna guffawed at this, and even Suki couldn't help but chuckle. It was easy to lose one's temper with the airhead, but you had to respect her resilience. Even in prison she'd been jubilant; and Yuna, who dealt badly with feeling powerless, had drawn a lot of comfort from the girl's energy and optimism in the face of harsh reality.

Ran, who had flopped down on her bedroll the second they'd entered the room, pushed herself onto her elbows and joined the fun. "And just what it is you're so eager to run home to, Suki? Could it be a certain water-tribe boy has special ways of cheering you up?" She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Suki could feel her cheeks going red. "Ran, that is completely inappropriate."

Ran's smile took a turn from teasing to decidedly wicked, sending a winding bolt of nostalgia right into the pit of Ty-Lee's stomach. She pursued her point with obvious relish. "Now now, Suki, don't be greedy! You're the only one of us getting up to any mischief these days." (At this, Sura looked slightly wounded. She was married, for goodness sake! She had stories . . .) "Come on, tell us what it is in those red-ribbon letters that keeps you warm on these long, cold nigh--"

"Shut up, Ran!"

The group fell silent, and turned to face Kuri. The tense, serious young girl had laid her bedroll towards the edge of the group, as was her habit; and now she was crouched next to one of the small windows at the face of the building. Her posture was completely rigid, but there was nothing unusual in that.

Ran shot her a cross look. "Sorry, Kuri. Bhumi forefend that any of us should have a little FUN out here; we should all be dour and resen--"

Kuri cut her off with a sharp hand gesture and a withering look. "No, I mean really shut up! Listen!"

Her urgency resonated with the group, and they sprang from their bedrolls and ran low over to the window, pressing themselves against the wall and craning their ears towards the outside. At first, all they heard was the wind; gentler now against the stones and dust of the ruins. But sure enough they heard it; low at first. A keening wail, the sad and pitiful howl of a creature in pain. Ran snorted. "It's just a wolf or something. You're too serious, Kuri, you're scaring yourself."

But Kuri didn't relax. "It's **not **a wolf; I heard words a minute ago. Someone's in the ruins with us."

Suki looked at Kuri, then out the window. Like the others she found Kuri rather intense, but there was no denying her skill and perception; if she said there was someone in the ruins Suki was inclined to believe her just to be on the safe side. But if there was someone, who was it? If it was a member of the Rebel patrol they would surely be better trying to avoid contact completely. But why would a member of the camp wander through the ruins, howling at the moon? Why would ANY sane person--

Suki's eyes widened. Surely she couldn't be that lucky.

"Get your gear. We're going to investigate." Ran sighed but didn't argue; even she couldn't dispute Kuri's instincts, when pressed. They quickly assembled their armour, fixing the light woven bamboo, cloth and metal plates in place with speed earned through years of practice. Suki finished first, tying her katana's scabbard to the cloth sash that held her tasset and cuirass in place, and quickly pushed her metal fans through on the other side. They had for some months now forgone the elaborate head-dress and war makeup that signified their tradition, deeming it too impractical and impossible to maintain in the circumstances. Instead, Suki favoured a plain cloth headband, the others following suit or simply tying their hair back, depending on its length. The others quickly finished too; then assembled around Ty-Lee to help her get her armour in place. No-one blamed the acrobat for her lack of speed; the armour was complex, and it took more than nine months to fully master putting it on in the dark.

When they were ready, Suki issued her instructions. "We're going for stealth here. No one is to interact with whoever it is out there without my say-so, even if it is Azula herself. _Especially _if it is Azula herself. You remember the beating she gave us last time? Don't assume because she doesn't have Ty-Lee or Lady Mai with her that she's not a threat. We'll have a better chance of neutralising her if she doesn't see us coming, so stick to the shadows and follow my lead."

With that, she turned and left the building, making a quick dash for the shadows on the other side of the street. Her feet didn't make a sound on the ancient flagstones. She paused quietly and listened . . . there it was again; louder this time. Kuri was right, it was definitely human, and definitely female. Perhaps they could finish tonight, after all.

She signaled for the others to follow her. Yuna and Kuri crossed the road to her side, while Ty-Lee and Ran climbed on to the roof and pressed low to it's flat surface; Sura held back to bring up the rear. Suki broke into a sprint, crouched low with her arms behind her back. Even at speed, their progress was almost silent.

It was sharp-eyed Ran who saw their target first. She stopped dead, and caught Suki's eye by waving her arms. Suki was annoyed by her lack of subtlety, but when she saw the figure at the crossroads she understood it. Suki had never seen a human being in such a state; not even in the roughest of refugee camps or the most terrible of field hospitals. Azula's clothes and skin were blackened and burned, her hair a scorched mess a couple of inches long in some places and a foot in others. She was shuffling down the street towards the river valley, clearly favouring one leg, clutching her right arm to her body with her left. From the way her right hand fell, the arm was clearly broken. Every time she put her left foot down she wimpered piteously, and Suki guessed she had walked a long way like that- she could see a trail of blood leading back into the forest.

The leader of the Kyoshi was so taken aback by the sight of her that for almost a minute, she did nothing. It wasn't until Kuri made as if to move forward (and it would have to be her, wouldn't it? The girl had no pity,) that Suki snapped out of it. She put a hand on Kuri's shoulder and moved forward, stepping out of cover without bothering with the stealth that she had emphasized so heavily. Even so, the battered Princess didn't see her until she was less than ten feet away. She looked like she was struggling to understand what she was seeing. Suki heard Yuna, Sura and Kuri walk up behind her, taking supportive positions. Azula watched them balefully for a moment, then turned her head away, instead facing the ground. Her face and posture took on the character of such weary defeat Suki barely knew what to do. She pulled a length of steel cord from under her armour and approached the girl timidly, strangely reminded of how she had come across Appa what seemed like a lifetime ago.

Suki snapped herself out of it. This was _not _Appa, this was the probably the most dangerous firebender in the world, and defintely the most cunning. She straightented her back and marched the last few feet and efficiently rapped the Tsubo that blocked firebending, and Azula's legs finally gave out. She slumped to the ground without making a noise. She was so weary it was almost a relief to be caught. Prison, execution . . . who cared? Who could bare more of _this_? She turned her face to the ground and did not resist as Suki pulled her broken arm behind her back and fastened it.

Suki finished her task and turned to the others. "Yuna, go--"

But Yuna couldn't go anywhere. She was face down on the ground with her fellow Kyoshi, her eyes furious and desperate. Suki span around in time to dodge Ty-Lee's first blow, but the second struck her shoulder and numbed her arm, the third and fourth taking her legs out from beneath her. Tears were streaming down the acrobat's face. "I'm sorry, Suki." Her final strike hit the warrior on the back of the neck, and Suki lost conciousness. It was over in seconds.

Ty-Lee turned to Azula, and untied her arms. Agni, she could barely look at her, even with her vision blurred as it was. "Oh, Azula. What've you done to yourself?"

This voice got Azula's attention. She turned her head towards it, with a look of such pure venom and disdain that Ty-Lee reflexively recoiled. But it faded, to be replaced again by that awful tiredness; and Ty-Lee did the only thing she could think of to do, reaching over and knocking the Princess out. She stood up and surveyed her surroundings, Ran knocked out on the rooftop, Sura, Yuna, Kuri and Suki on the ground. She felt the lost, helpless feeling of someone totally, completely out of their depth in unforgiving waters and knew that whatever was coming she would be facing completely alone.

But she sniffed, and gathered herself. It would be a while before the Kyoshi woke up again, and she had things to do. Once Ty-Lee set down a path, she wasn't the kind to turn back, and anyway, she had a feeling this wasn't one of those paths there was any two ways about.

So she set about her business without any particular feelings of self-pity, except that maybe she'd prefer it in future if the people she loved would for once wind up on the same side. As she left the old Earth Kingdom city with Azula slumped across the front of her saddle, it seemed to her that the only thing today had in common with the day before was that the sun had still risen . . .

* * *

**Author's note**: Bhumi is another, more pronounceable name for Prthvi, the goddess of the earth in Hindu mythology. I figure that if the Fire Nation worship Agni then it's pretty likely the earth Kingdom follow her- especially since that's where King Bumi seems to have derived his name.

Also, Ladybird is the English name for what Americans call Ladybugs. As an Irishwoman living in England, I'm inclined to stick with our name; to me "Ladybug" doesn't really sound dignified enough for a village elder to say, no matter how he feels about gardening. XD

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I enjoyed writing it, though I'm not sure I'm happy with the end, but I couldn't think of anything better. The next one may be sooner, as I appear to be on a roll!


	3. Chapter 3

Yuna had to admit that, in a perverse sort of way, she was almost proud of Ty-Lee. The blundering acrobat they had taken in nine months ago would not have been able to stitch them up so competently; obviously some of Yuna's tracking and stealth lessons had sunk in. She picked her way around the piles of equipment now littering the store where their mongoosedragons had once been, listening absent-mindedly to Ran's foul mouthed ranting.

"-'ck no, Ran! Instead, let's take this ex-fire nation lackey airhead under our wing! And hey, while we're at it, why don't we teach her all the secrets of the Kyoshi tradition! That could NEVER have repercussions. Oh NO. No way her loyalty could ever be called into question, hmm?' Well, I just want to make it clear that I bloody well told you so! She was probably waiting for this moment the whole frigging time. Goddamn it, if I ever see that brainless, bouncing bit--"

She was cut off by Suki's return from the outside. "Can you see anything, Yuna?"

Yuna looked around her. A mongoosedragon's footprints were distinctive and easy to follow on normal ground, but these flagstones made things trickier; and anyway, Ty-Lee had helpfully released all of their mongoosedragons, and the blasted disloyal mongrels had jumped at the chance and scattered into the four winds, leaving behind them a crisscrossed trail in the dust that made picking out one particular creature nigh on impossible. Yuna could have tracked her own beast due to it's limp, but the other five were almost indistinguishable from each other.

She sighed and tugged at her fringe, a nervous habit she hadn't indulged in years. "If there was some way to tell which one was hers, I could maybe track it. But even then I'd be following a dust trail- the wind probably already wiped it out further along. And even if we knew which way she headed, she'll be travelling about five or six times faster than us, and with enough of a head-start we really won't stand a chance of getting near her in less than a week. And there're about a hundred places she could go to ground in these mountains. And we can't even make an educated guess which she would head for- she's burnt our maps."

Suki closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. "So that's a 'no', then." She surveyed the piles of equipment scattered around the room and sighed. "What's left?"

"Well, she's taken all our medical supplies, so she probably won't need to head to a healer. She's taken a lot of food, too- she did leave us some, though. But we're going to need to get to a market or something before we go anywhere more than a day or so away. Some of the money is gone, but not all of it. Apart from that, she left pretty much everything." Yuna walked a few paces and wondered whether it would be wise to suggest that Ty-Lee had actually been quite merciful- if she'd left the saddlebags tied to the mongoosedragons, the Kyoshi would have been in a far more difficult situation. She tugged on her fringe again and went for it. "I don't think she was trying to strand us out here to die, Suki."

Ran started muttering again. "Oh? How magnanimous of her. Remind me to _thank _her while I'm beating her brains out with a rock--"

Suki cut her off with a look. "Ran, I know you're upset-"

"I'm not upset, I'm _livid_."

"--but we're all in the same position and you aren't helping. If you've got time to stamp around muttering, why don't you go help Sura pack up the campsite? Whatever we're going to do next, we can't stay here much longer." The two women had a momentary stare-down, but after a few seconds Ran sighed and left. Yuna let her breath out. Ran had a quick temper and a quicker tongue, but she was loyal to Suki and could be reasoned with- but on the rare occasions she did start a fight it was . . . disruptive, to say the least. Yuna's relief didn't last long though, as Suki span on her. "Yuna, I'm having a hard time here. Are you saying we should be _grateful_? Because that is what it sounded like."

Yuna fought to keep the exasperation from her voice. "You know I'm not! I'm just saying that if we think about Ty-Lee's motives we'll have a better idea of what she'll do next. I don't think this is about the Fire Nation; I think Ty-Lee saw an old friend--"

"An 'old friend' who put her in prison."

"--an old friend in such a bad way she couldn't stand by and do nothing while we took her down and shipped her back to the place where she clearly wasn't getting any better. If Ty-Lee were doing it for the Fire Nation I'd say she'd have taken her right back up that mountain to the rebel camp, but that's the one place this trail doesn't lead! Otherwise . . . Well, I don't know. I just think that we need to keep a clear perspective on this, that's all."

Suki resisted the urge to resent Yuna's composure; as usual, the woman had a point. Ty-Lee wasn't the kind to get caught in a political cause; and when she thought about it she couldn't believe that the ditzy, enthusiastic girl had been quietly planning a stunt like this for the last two months, either. What then? Yuna was right, a heat of the moment decision fit what Suki knew of Ty-Lee, and she probably could overlook something like being thrown in prison- Ty Lee couldn't hold a grudge if it had handles. So she was now alone in the wilderness without a plan or place to go. What would she do?

Suki stood with her hand to her mouth in thought. "Alright. Say you were on the run from everyone, on a eyesore like a mongoosedragon. You'd keep to cover, wouldn't you? That leaves the river plains out. The north runs pretty quickly to the sea . . . and to the west is quite populated. You'd have a hard time staying out of people's way. If you were looking to cover distance quietly and find somewhere to lay low . . . I'd go east. Especially with Azula's injuries." Suki shuddered. They couldn't travel with the Princess in that condition, even mounted.

Yuna smiled, relieved; this was why Suki was the boss. "East, huh? That's pretty vague." She began collecting the equipment that they needed and could reasonably carry between them. They were going to have to cut down the number of tents, for one thing- they could probably managed three. She made a mental note to make sure she paired up with Sura; Kuri kicked in her sleep and Ran snored like a swamp-boar, so it was only fair they had to suffer each other.

"Yeah, it's basically a guess. We're back to square one, almost. But it's a start, and it's better than doing nothing. We can ask questions around the towns. I'll have Toph keep her ear to the ground for rumours of them, too. I think she's camped out with the troops in Omashu at the moment." Suki smiled; the last time she had seen Toph the girl had been about a foot taller, and she'd adapted well to army life, casting herself into the trenches with undisguised glee and adopting military vulgarity and obscenity like she'd been born to it. Her division loved her- she served as both a deadly weapon of war and a mascot. It had been her who put them onto the rebels in the first place.

Suki squared her shoulders and readied herself to give orders to the others that would involve prolonging their absence from home for Bhumi-knew how long. It was Sura she felt worst for; she hadn't seen her husband Yun since the princess escaped the mental facility. Mind you, she was starting to feel sorry for herself in quiet moments. Between her mission and Sokka's duty to the water tribe she hadn't seen him in months; and a lot of attractive Northern Tribe water-bending girls had headed south to escape their oppressive culture and learn water-bending from Katara . . . well, his sister could keep him in line for a while longer. Suki smiled at the thought and turned to leave the shed.

Her progress was interrupted by Kuri, who'd snuck in behind her at some point and was now standing looking expectantly at her. Trying to mask her surprise Suki gave Kuri a questioning look; she seemed agitated. "There are firebenders out there; about fifteen of them. Sura and Ran are pinned down in the room we camped in. They haven't found them yet, but they're searching buildings around the area."

Suki cursed. It was just one damn thing after another today, wasn't it? She embraced her anger, and drew her fans from her belt. Frankly, a good fight might be what she needed about now, and since they were leaving anyway they might as well crack a few Rebel heads on the way out; Kuri and Yuna followed suit. Suki moved to the door. "Nothing flashy. Find them and take them down, so we can get out of here; I don't know about you two, but I for one am sick of this place."

With that, she pushed the door open and stepped out into the light.

* * *

She had travelled for a full day after leaving the ruins, keeping to the woods and higher, more deserted paths of the mountain range. There weren't many towns in the area, and Ty-Lee knew well enough to stay out of the ones that there were; the others would certainly be tracking her, and fewer things were more conspicuous than a Kyoshi warrior on a mongoosedragon with an unconscious Fire Nation princess slumped over the front of her saddle.

She would have preferred to travel farther, but Azula's wounds were too serious to ignore. Ty-Lee had applied a rudimentary poultice over the area of the worst burns- her upper right back and shoulder seemed bad, the wound running up her neck to the lower side of her jawline- before beginning the trip. It was fortunate for the princess that they had been specifically tracking her, as Suki had ensured that their mongoosedragons were loaded to the gills with the best burn salves and wound dressings they could find; not to mention sutures, splints and bottles of clean water. Ty-Lee had taken what she could from the saddle-bags of the other Kyoshi in terms of food, too; and she had a decent supply of dried meat and some vegetables that they had sent Sura in to town to purchase from the local farmers.

It was around midnight of her second days travel when she found it; a cave, part of a system system threading through a mountain about a hundred miles East of the one she'd been on the day before. The entrance was too small for the mongoosedragon, but the cave itself widened out on the inside, leaving a lot of floorspace; and even better, there was an underground river running through it at the back, it's fast flowing waters crystal clear. It had probably been inhabited at some time in the past; the floor was too flat and even to be completely natural, but it didn't seem occupied at the moment so Ty-Lee counted her blessings and set up camp.

Ty-Lee gently pulled Azula from the moosedragon and carried her into the cave, and was astonished by her lightness. Lowering her onto the bedroll (which had once been Kuri's, and Ty-Lee had winced even as she had stolen it for fear of the girl one day getting revenge), Ty-Lee set about her work. Without self-consciousness she cut away the burned clothing Azula was wearing to reveal the skin underneath, and began inspecting for wounds.

Despite her ditziness, Ty-Lee was a thoroughly competent medic; she'd had some training with the Kyoshi, but being an acrobat and circus performer had given her experience with broken bones, and being a friend to Azula would make a burn-healer out of anyone. Considering the mess she had found her in, most of what Ty-Lee found was good news. Once you cleaned away the deep layers of soot and ash, there were only two areas where the burns were really bad, on the shoulder and neck as she had seen, and on the left forearm. There were other areas of blistering, but these would heal themselves though they were painful looking, and none were so big they would need much attention. There were cuts too- most were grazes obviously caused by falling in the thick forests at the ruins. Some were deeper though, and would need stitching. There was a nasty cut on the palm of her right hand, which she'd almost certainly gotten at the same time as she'd broken her arm, and there were a couple of deep cuts on her face, one on her nose that would be impossible to stitch and would certainly leave an ugly scar. But the limp was the result of a sprain, which would heal in time; the trail of blood had come from a deep wound on her leg, but it was a clean cut that didn't reach muscle and would stitch fine.

She got water from the river at the back of the cave and built a fire for it to boil on,and while she waited, she rolled Azula carefully onto her side and used the bottled water to wash the site of the burn. When it had boiled, she used it to clean the medical cloths, and set about cleaning the dirt, soot and charred cloth from the site. When this was done, she got the toxic medical alcohol and poured it onto the burn. Azula was mercifully unconscious for this, but if . . . _when _she woke up, the pain would be almost unbearable, and there was little Ty-Lee could do about it. When she was sure the wound was as clean as it could be, she mixed the burn-salve powder with the boiling water to make a paste, and when it was cool spread it over the damaged skin. This done, she placed a gauze over the area and secured it with bandages. When she was finished, half Azula's upper torso was covered, as was her neck and jawline. This process would need to be repeated every four or five days until new skin formed. Ty-Lee had heard that Fire benders recovered from burn wounds faster than most people and didn't suffer the dreadful rot that cost others arms and legs, but even so it wouldn't be less than six weeks before the wound could be exposed to air safely.

This done, she moved onto stitching up the larger cuts; trying to make the stitches neat as possible, though by firelight this wasn't easy and it wasn't something she was good at. Azula would have enough trouble getting used to the wounds on her neck and face, so the less visible she could make the scars elsewhere the better.

When that was finished, all that was left was the arm; and it was this that Ty-Lee had been dreading. She knew the basics of re-setting bones, but the break was a nasty one and she knew if she made a mistake Azula could easily lose the use of her hand. Still, doing something was better than nothing, and bracing herself, she gripped Azula's elbow in one hand and her hand in the other, and pulled. With a sickening click, the two displaced ends of the bone running beneath Azula's thumb slid together, and Ty-Lee felt them to ensure they met neatly as possible then splinted the arm, fastening the wood tightly with thick cloth bands.

That did it. Her last task complete, Ty-Lee sat down heavily, and felt the weight of the last day set into her bones. She looked at her childhood friend. Azula had always been at her most beautiful by firelight, but tonight there seemed barely a trace of the girl Ty-Lee knew; and it wasn't just the bandages. Even with her external wounds treated, the girl who woke up would still be the creature from the ruins and it hadn't been Azula's physical state that had made her so hard to look at, but the aura surrounding the girl. It hadn't been dark or dingy or even black, it was almost a void; a place where light should be but wasn't. Ty-Lee had seen dead things with more spark to them.

Her eyes clouded. Purpose had given her strength till now, but with her work completed she had nothing to do but consider what lay ahead. She was a fugitive, on the run from people who she cared for deeply; and her only company was someone who might now be less than a person. If Azula came to, and was as bleak as she had been, Ty-Lee woudldn't be able to cope. She didn't do things on her own, not really, not for long. A deep feeling of unease and unhappiness was sliding into her stomach. It wasn't something she had much experience with.

She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands. Well, she'd just have to keep herself occupied until things worked out somehow. She fished around for the scissors from the medical kit, and set about evening Azula's scorched hair.

Dawn was coming over the trees, making it more than a two days since Ty-Lee had last slept. Despite her turmoil, exhaustion finally took her, and after checking Azula was still unconscious she crawled to her bedroll and finally passed out.

* * *

Far from the cold Northern mountains, a messenger hawk was delivering a message to the Imperial Palace of the Firelord, carrying the first good news Zuko had received in some time. He had been working through the rolls and rolls of paper in the treasury, trying desperately to get some sort of grasp on how the budget actually worked so he could balance it. The Earth King's generals had been asking pointed questions about reparation payment, as had the Northern Water tribe, but between trying to pay off them and the soldiers who had not defected to the rebels (and the longer this took the more would go, he knew) there would be nothing left for anybody else. When Hawky arrived he was about ready to give up and set the whole room on fire, so he took the opportunity to leave his duties for a while and made his way back to the personal quarters of the Firelord.

They'd finally found Azula. Well, that was one less worry to deal with. Apart from his concern for his sister (which was genuine) he hadn't quite been able to shake the feeling that she was lurking in the shadows, waiting. More than once he'd nearly fried well meaning but unnervingly stealthy servents, and he knew that Mai felt the same way. They both knew Azula too well to think she could just leave the throne and Fire-Nation to him; and a selfish part of him hoped her mind never returned to its former glory, though he was ashamed to admit it.

He arrived at the heavy door to the family quarters, and took a moment to straighten his hair before he went in. It was long enough now to finally go back into its topknot, but he hadn't been able to shake the habit of running his fingers through it while he was thinking, so it was always a bit scruffy after a trip to the treasury. When he was satisfied, he went on through.

She was in the courtyard by the pond, practicing some sort of slow martial-art form that she'd learnt in the last few years. He stood and watched her for a moment, enjoying just seeing her. It was so hard to believe she was really _here. _After so long.

She saw him and stopped, smiling. "Good morning, Zuko." She took a closer look at him and frowned. "You didn't spend all night in the treasury again, did you?" The look on his face gave him away instantly, and she almost laughed- he still acted like a child sometimes. "Your hair's a mess. Come here and I'll fix it."

Zuko huffed almost petulantly, but did as he was told. He stood still while she pulled his hair out and twisted it back up into its clasp, then turned around, unsure of how to deliver his news. She'd only been found six weeks ago, after Azula had already escaped, so she hadn't seen her daughter in over six years. She'd only heard Zuko's account of her descent into insanity, and frankly he hadn't had the heart to tell her everything. He decided to just say it, and hope for the best.

"They found Azula, mom."

* * *

**Authors Note: **Well, here's chapter 3. To be honest, I'm not really happy with this one; and writing it was a bit like hard work in places. So I've decided to put it up and come back and revise it later, when I haven't seen it for a while. If you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate them!

As for Firebenders and burns . . . I figure evolution would give each type of bender a way of coping with their element. Earthbender's are muscular and tougher to break, water-benders might have the hunter's reflex (wiki./Q/Whatisthehunter'sreflex)- and maybe Airbender's have hollow bones . . . :D

The next chapter should hopefully be a bit easier- I've been looking forward to writing Ty-Lee/Delirious Azula for a while now . . .


	4. Chapter 4

Azula dreams of the sun.

It's not the first time, either. Since she was a four years old she had dreamt of it, no distant disc, but an orb suspended in front of her, shining. _Hers_. The first time she'd seen it was the first time she'd felt the power of fire, and she'd woken up to find the canopy of her bed rolling with flames, but she hadn't been afraid. Her mother had been furious, and accused her of playing with candles, but her father was quiet. He had turned to his wife and with a sharp word dismissed her back to her quarters; then he turned to his daughter with a light in his eyes that she thought held the sun, too. That had been the start.

But it's different now. Something is wrong. The light that she had warmed to and trusted for so long is harsher and hotter; it gets whiter till she can't bear to look at it. She brings her arms up to cover her eyes, to protect herself; but it gets whiter and hotter still, and the light itself is shining through her skin, peeling it back, blackening it, cutting through her and out like she were nothing.

* * *

Ty-Lee sprang awake to the sound of harsh, ragged breathing. Azula's eyes were open wide for the first time in nearly four days, fixed on the ceilng like it was a coiled viper. She was writhing on the ground, her back arching and teeth grinding, an expression of pain and terror on her face like Ty-Lee had never seen on anyone, let alone Azula. She instinctively ran towards the prinecess' side, but had to stop in her tracks less than half way. It was _hot,_ so hot she had to scramble back again to her own mattress, and even there she could feel it, getting hotter by the second. The air around Azula was shimmering like light in the desert, the sheer heat flowing from her bending the air.

Ty-Lee fought the panic creeping up her spine. Think, think. What did you do when people were too hot? Her eyes darted to the river at the back of the cave, but what good was that when she couldn't get near the princess to carry her to it?

Inspiration came to her in a flash. She grabbed her thick bedroll and sprinted to the back of the cave, where she tossed it into the quick flowing water. The thick green fabric and padding became sodden and heavy almost instantly, to the point Ty-Lee had a hard time pulling it out. Struggling under its weight, she fought as close to the princess as she could get, using the bedroll as a shield, then tossed the wet length of fabric onto Azula, having to bite back an instinctive urge to apologise to her for the indignity.

It landed with a damp slap, totally covering the firebender's prone form. Ty-Lee felt the room cool almost instantly, but she didn't let her guard down. There was a hissing sound coming from the cloth, and a few seconds later vapour started creeping out from underneath. Wasting no time, Ty-Lee ran to the head of the bedroll and grabbed it and the one underneath Azula and dragged it, the princess sandwiched between them, towards the river edge. She tried to ignore how the rock floor that had been beneath Azula popped and cracked on exposure to the cool night air.

When she reached the rivers edge she pulled Azula parallel to it, then jumped in. The water was freezing and deep, coming up to her chest and snatching her breath as the strong current pulled around her. When she had her footing, she grabbed the side nearest the princess's feet and pulled it in after her, slowly shuffling the other girl down into the water, till finally she slipped off the edge into Ty-Lee's arms. The blanket was hot, but not too hot to touch, and within a few seconds of submersion it cooled. Ty-Lee shoved the top bedroll up onto the rivers edge again with the other one, uncovering Azula's face.

Her eyes were still open, but they no longer looked fixed on a single point- she looked confused and panicked, eyes deliriously swivelling about for something they could understand. Ty-Lee arranged herself so that she had Azula securely gripped beneath her arms, taking care not to jostle the broken one, and dipped the other girl gently back into the cold stream till the cold water covered her head up to the ears, her face the only part of her body above the surface. Azula's body tensed, and she started to struggle; but Ty-Lee was stronger than she was and in far better condition. She shifted Azula's weight till the other girl was almost in a standing position, and pulled her close, Azula's face pressing into her shoulder with Ty-Lee's holding on to the fabric at the back of the rough spare shirt the princess was wearing.

Ty-Lee was at a loss for what to do. The fear in Azula's eyes and her feeble struggles were heartbreaking. She stroked the other girls hair gently; two inches long now, and fluffy without it's own weight to keep it down. She instinctively began to hum an old nursery rhyme from her childhood, one her own mother had sung to her when she was ill. It had been a ritual she'd almost looked forward to, and the only time her mother distinguished her from her sisters, though she'd undoubtedly done the same for them. It was a calming song that she'd always remembered:

"Silly little salamander  
Sunning on a stone  
Don't you know your mother's worried  
You should hurry home

She's searched across the mountains  
Where the dragons roam  
The night is getting cold now  
You are all alone . . ."

This reached Azula. She knew the song too, though she had only heard it once. She had been sick, hadn't she? She was eight and they thought she would die. Was she dying now? It felt like it had before . . . she was so hot, and it was so hard to think. Yes, she was sick- she had the Dragon's Plague, the child killer, she'd heard the doctor say. Her mother was there, singing to her again, and crying. She didn't need her mother, she hated her mother . . . but the song, and the damp cloth on her head (why did she feel like her whole body was wet? She was in her bed at the palace, surely. Why was she cold?) were soothing, and she was afraid . . . she couldn't die now. She got the feeling that people who died of Dragon's Plague were weak. Her father would be furious . . .

Ty-Lee was amazed; it seemed to be working. Azula stopped struggling, even leaning into her shoulder, her good arm coming up Ty-Lee's back to grasp the cloth there like a lifeline. The other girl was still warm, for which Ty-Lee was grateful; she could feel her fingers going numb. It took her a minute to realise that Azula was talking, her words muffled into Ty-Lee's shoulder.

"Tell him I won't die, mom. I won't, I swear. I'm not weak. Tell him."

Ty-Lee broke off singing, confused. What was Azula talking about? She tried to sooth her around the lump in her throat, "Azula, you're not dying, I promise. It's going to be okay, really! You're just a little hot is all. I'm just cooling you off. And I'm not your mom, silly- I'm Ty-Lee."

Azula pulled her head back slightly and squinted up at Ty-Lee, recognition crossing her face followed swiftly by grumpy irritation. It was such a familiar look from those days before the calculating mask had descended for good that for a second Ty-Lee was transported back in time, too. "I don't have time to go swimming with you, Ty-Lee. I have firebending practice." That same bossy tone, too, though her words were slightly slurred.

Ty-Lee's understood a little better now- Azula thought they were at the Fire Acadamy, back when they were nine or ten maybe. This was better than Azula thinking that she was a traitor and trying to kill her, so she played along, sniffling. "No! Not today, Azula. Don't you remember? Lo and Li gave you the day off. You're coming to the beach with me!"

This just made Azula look crosser. "I don't get days off. Fire Nation princesses don't have free time. Those lazy old trolls are just shirking their responsibilities . . . I'll banish them _both _for this . . . " her voice was drifting now, and her temperature was almost down to that of Ty-Lee.

Ty-Lee took this as her cue to get out, first shuffling Azula till she was half-out herself, then springing up behind her. She winced at the stiffness in her joints- a few more minutes in that cold water and she'd have been fighting a fever herself. Azula was struggling to sit herself up, but she hadn't the strength. Ty-Lee picked her up easily and carried her over to the fire, then went back to get the dry bedroll. It was scorched clean through in some places, but it would still be better than the floor.

When she had Azula arranged somewhat comfortably, Ty-Lee sat down in an exhausted heap, but felt better than she had in days. Azula had woken up, she had spoken to her! Even if she was a little out of it, that was better than nothing. And there was a flicker now in her aura, barely there, but better, much better than nothing at all. She shuffled over to the saddlebags (she'd let the mongoosedragon go two days ago- it had been getting agitated, and would only be a danger to them and get them caught) and pulled out the ingredients for a rudimentary soup. Her attempts to get Azula to eat in the last few days had been disheartening failures, but she thought that if she tried now it might turn out better.

She put the pot on and waited impatiently for it to simmer; but a groan from Azula distracted her. The princess was looking pained again, and pulling weakly at the bandages on her neck with her left hand. Ty-Lee took her hand in hers and held it tightly. She could feel tears pricking her eyes again; she was tired and the last few days had been difficult, to say the least. It was hard seeing Azula like this when the girl she was used to was so strong, so self assured and in control.

She looked up in surprise as Azula's hand squeezed hers. The girl had a look of resentful penitence on her face that didn't really make sense. "Don't cry, dum-dum. I didn't mean it."

That did it. Ty-Lee's head went back and she started bawling like a child, tears streaming down her face and wailing; it didn't matter what Azula thought she'd done or said, comfort so rarely came from the princess that now, after such a tiring few days it was enough to completely undo Ty-Lee. She didn't notice as Azula's eyes rolled back in her head and the girl passed out again, and barely noticed as the pot started to simmer over. She pulled it off, still crying, and waited for it to cool. When it did, she woke a bleary eyed Azula, who sure enough ate two bowls of the stuff, disgusting though it was. Her eyes were a little more focused afterwards, and from the unfriendly way she started looking at Ty-Lee she was beginning to remember the events of the last year a bit more coherently.

But it didn't matter. Ty-Lee remembered their childhood that night, how the awkward, anti-social and driven princess had slowly warmed to her, how she had singled her out from her sisters and approved of her individuality; the games they'd sometimes played and the times that Azula had truly laughed and enjoyed herself, the one time she'd seen her cry. How the girl had thought herself a monster, though she hadn't been, not yet. The slow change from grumpy, ambitious and mean to cold, ambitious and cruel that had marred the girl and their friendship, how different she'd been when she'd come to take Ty-Lee from the circus, like any flicker of emotion had been ruthlessly tamped down- and then that look on her face when Ty-Lee had saved Mai.

Looking at her now, bandaged and broken, tufts of unruly hair sticking up at odd angles and the slowly healing cuts on her face, Ty-Lee felt a surge of almost maternal affection that she knew Azula would hate if she were aware of it. She _would _help Azula get better. Maybe she could even start over, try again! Azula had always been at her worst in the Palace, under her father's influence- out here, it could be different. And Ty-Lee knew the other Azula was still there; she'd seen her recently enough on Ember Island. Not kind, never nice- but _so _human.

Outside it started raining again, drowning out the sound of Ty-Lee humming a different song, an old one from before the war about rebuilding on what was lost, and the phoenix that comes from the ashes . . .

* * *

Closer than Ty-Lee would have liked, a different kind of bird was bringing the praise of the firelord to someone who really didn't want to hear it. Suki took the canister from Hawky's back and retired to her tent for what was going to be an awful task. Sitting down, she pulled the scroll from the can and read it through a pained wince.

_Suki,_

_That's great news. I'm sending a transport ship to the harbour at the Lo Yu colony; they'll take her back to the Imperial City. If you could escort her on board, I would be grateful; there's always a chance the people could try to free her. This is a great weight off my shoulders. If you have free time, you could come to the Imperial City too, so the Fire Nation can show its gratitude._

_Sincerely,_

_Zuko_

Suki sighed, and felt a great weight descending on _her _shoulders and settling there. Now came the unenviable task of sending another letter, informing the Firelord that his crazy sister had escaped from under their nose. Not only that, she had been rescued by Ty-Lee in a move that Suki, leader of the Kyoshi, really should have seen coming, and they were now probably hundreds of miles away leaving the Kyoshi with barely any clues to start working on. The other hawk was taking a letter to Toph's platoon, where someone would read it to her, asking her to keep her informed of any rumours of Azula's whereabouts, so Suki had been able to put off writing a new letter to the Firelord until Hawky returned. There was no way in which this wasn't her fault. She reached over to grab some parchment to write a reply, jostling the letter canister as it she did. Two smaller, less official looking letters fell out.

Suki picked the first up, confused. When she saw who it was from, her heart sank like a stone.

_Dear Suki,_

_I can't thank you enough for what you and the other Kyoshi have done. I understand my daughter is dangerous, and that you have all put yourselves at great risk finding her; I am in your debt. If it is possible, and I understand it may not be, could you try not to hurt her too much? She may be unkind, but understand that her father has not made life easy for her, and neither have I. I have enclosed another letter for her, if she can read it._

_Thank you for everything,_

_Ursa_

The other letter was sealed with wax, but Suki wouldn't have been able to bring herself to read it anyway. 'Unkind', huh? A mother's love was blind, she supposed. It was odd though, Suki had always gotten the impression from Zuko that Ozai had made Azula's life very easy indeed; but she sneakingly suspected that Zuko may have been too blinded by his own suffering to notice anyone elses. She had seen the ex-firelord at his trial. If that man had love in him for anyone, it wouldn't be nurturing, even Suki could tell that much. And having seen Azula . . . well, maybe it was for the best her mother wouldn't be seeing her any time soon. If Suki, who really didn't like Azula at all, had been upset by the sight it would surely break Ursa's heart.

She stared balefully at the parchment, trying to think of a way of phrasing 'I screwed up and your sister is a crazy, charred mess' that was acceptable in a letter to the Firelord. She wasn't making much headway either, when an eruption of shouting from the other tents; followed by a stomping noise that was getting closer. The flaps of Suki's tent were yanked back with some force, and an irate Ran leant in. "Suki, will you make Yuna swap with me? I can't take another night of this! Kuri kicks like a mul-"

The look on Suki's face must have been terrible for it to have stopped Ran mid-sentence. The other girl made an apologetic sound and more soberly walked back to the other tent. Suki heard whispering for a few seconds, then more footsteps. This time, it was Sura who leant in. Suki had to smile at that. "Been sent on a peace-keeping mission, have you?"

Sura, ever the diplomat, smiled calmly. "Ran said you seemed . . . tense." Ran had clearly said something a bit more explicit than that, but Suki let it go.

"I'm just trying to write to Zuko, tell him what happened. He already thinks we're on our way home with her, though." Then, more quietly, "We _should _be on our way home with her."

Sura sat down next to Suki and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. Suki appreciated the gesture; Sura was the oldest of the Kyoshi, and had always had something of an 'older sister' kind of role. "It wasn't your fault, Suki. None of us saw it coming."

"It was my _job _to see it coming. Now we're traipsing around in the middle of nowhere with no clue where they could be. It could be _months _before we catch word of her again, and everyone just wants to go home." She looked at Sura sadly. "You too. I know you worry about Yun while you're gone."

Sura grinned wistfully. "He is a little lost without me, isn't he?"

"He's a hazard to himself." They both giggled a little at that.

Sura gave Suki's shoulders a squeeze. "We all knew what we were getting into when we volunteered for this Suki, and you were right. Kyoshi island never did enough for the rest of the world during the war, so the more we do now the better. We're with you till the end on this, okay? Even Ran." They sat quietly for a few moments, then Suki picked up the parchment again. Sura handed her a pen. "Would you like some help with that?"

Suki shook her head. "No, I think I can handle it." Sura got up to leave, smiling back at Suki as she went. Before she left, Suki called out to her. "Uh, Sura? Would you mind swapping with Kuri? I think if she and Ran go another night without sleep they'll probably kill us all." At Sura's pleading look she smiled apologetically. "I'll swap with you tomorrow, okay?"

Sura relented. "Alright. Good night, Suki."

Suki turned back to the paper with renewed vigor, if not a better idea of exactly what she was going to say. Well, best to be direct about it, she supposed.

_Dear Zuko,_

_We've encountered a problem . . ._

* * *

Sokka sighed pathetically for the fourth time in as many minutes. He was sitting at the table, staring forlornly out the sheet-ice window. (And how had they lived at the South Pole without waterbending? Katara had made it a priority to construct several sturdy, comfortable igloos first thing when they got back.) More worryingly, he hadn't really touched his food- GranGran's steamed sea prunes, and Sokka had only had two helpings; an unprecedented occurrence. Katara's eyebrow twitched. This was wearing on her already frayed nerves.

Sokka sighed again, and Katara lost it. "What is wrong with you? You've been totally useless for days now, and we're busy, Sokka! You can't just sit around all day, mooning out the window-" Katara winced at her poor choice of words, as Sokka's expression got even more pathetic. She softened her tone. "Look, just snap out of it, okay? I'm sure you'll see Suki again soon enough."

"But Katara, I haven't heard from her in DAYS! What if she's forgotten me? What if Hawky got lost, and she thinks I've forgotten her?" His face darkened. "What if she found Azula and something happened?"

Katara had to acknowledge that this was a valid concern. "She's with Ty-Lee, and all the Kyoshi know that bending-blocking punch thing now. I'm sure they can handle her." She could sympathise with her brother's worry, though. Aang still hadn't . . .

Her brother's mitt covered her own, and when she looked up he was giving her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Katara, I shouldn't complain. You have it worse than me. Has Aang still not written to you?" Katara shook her head. "What is wrong with that kid? Three months and nothing- I just don't get it. I mean, he's crazy about you, he always was!"

Katara didn't have an answer for him. Things had been fine, at first- she and Aang had traveled together to various diplomatic meetings, sorting out disputes and controlling some scuffles between the colonies and the Earth Kingdom. They'd been better than fine, even- they'd been very happy. Aang had been as carefree and as happy as she'd ever seen him; with the firelord defeated and the two of them together. And Katara had been as happy as she ever had been, too. Sure, they'd had some minor disputes, but nothing more than one or two minor arguments about where they should go next, how hard Aang should be working himself. Nothing that explained what had happened.

One day, Aang got a letter from Zuko. They'd been at a meeting in Ba Sing Sei, talking to King Kuei about the class struggle that was slowly gaining momentum in the Earth Kingdom, but it was mostly a formality. Katara stayed behind to keep an eye on things while Aang went on Appa to see what was going on. She hadn't had reason to be worried.

But when he came back two weeks later, things had changed. _He _had changed. Aang was distant, skittish. He avoided her eye and barely spoke and when he did he was almost . . . mean. She had pressed him for details about what was wrong, but he wouldn't open up to her, would barely acknowledge her. Eventually she had blown up at him; she couldn't help herself. It hurt her to see him that way, and he hurt her with his coldness- and the fight that ensued had been devastating. She had suggested she should go look after things at the Southern Water Tribe, hoping he would try to stop her. He hadn't.

Sokka watched his little sister's eyes fill with tears, and thought for the umpteenth time in the last three months that when he saw Aang again, he would have some pretty pointed things to say to him. "I know he loves you, Katara." He patted her hand. "It'll work out, somehow."

Katara wiped her eyes and sniffed. "Thanks, Sokka." She took his plate and hers over to the sink; she wasn't feeling all that hungry herself. "And if it helps, before she left? Suki told me that if I saw you looking at anyone else, I should imprison you in an iceberg until she got back."

Sokka's eyes gleamed. "Really?"

Katara nodded. "Really."

Sokka sniffed and wiped his nose on his mitt; Katara winced. "Thanks, sis."

Katara gave him a disgusted look. "Don't mention it." She picked up the rest of the sea-prunes and took them outside to her father and Bato, who were at the fishing hole. There was no point letting them go to waste, after all.

* * *

**Author's note:** You know, I didn't notice this until after I'd written it, but everyone seems to need comfort in this chapter, huh? Lol. It's almost like a theme or something.

Also, I'm not spoiling anything by saying that I'm not setting up a Zutara here- just to avoid ship-teasing, which is dangerous sport indeed. Poor Aang is going through something mysterious that will be a bigger feature later on.

Next up: Toph! I've really wanted to bring her in for a while now, but the time didn't feel right. We'll see how military life is treating her. (With careful respect, I imagine, lol.) Also, no more mongoosedragons! Thank god. I kept typing out 'moosedragon', then spotting it later and having to delete the chapter and re-upload, which is a complete pain.


	5. Chapter 5

As the dust settled, Toph took a firm stance, a deep breath, and extended her senses. Out passed the cracked, torn floor of the main arena (ignoring the unconscious forms of the royal guard), up what was left of the columns that lined the room, past the ruined throne and smashed statues; up the towering walls and torn tapestries towards the ceiling, which also bore scars from the battle. Where _was _the old coot? That last attack should have _greased _him. The vibrations reached the chandelier. She always had difficulty with the damn thing with all it's fancy-pants dangly bits, but she was almost sure there was something off about it . . .

Smirking triumphantly, she shifted her feet into a low attacking stance and sent tremors up the walls of the huge, hollow cavern to the point in the centre of its roof where a metal pin held the chandelier in place. She raised her hand palm up to the ceiling, and then twisted it sharply into a fist. The rivet snapped in half with a sharp pinging sound, and the chandelier began its plummeting descent, its crystals jingling rather inappropriately, Toph thought. She shifted her stance again, making sharp gestures to the left, then right, as she heaved huge sections of wall and sent them sailing towards the centre of the room, where they would intercept the chandelier's course and crush it, and its occupant, into a fine (if slightly sticky) paste. Seeing their imminent future approaching, the figure in the chandelier let out a terrified yelp.

Toph stopped in her tracks. That wasn't Bumi's voice, it was one of his guard, and while the batty old King of Omashu was irritatingly difficult to kill other people were upsettingly easy. She jumped and landed with her hands and legs spread as wide as possible, and with a strained grunt halted the massive boulders in their tracks, and before they had hit the ground she had moved again, and with a smooth gesture that remarkably resembled waterbending force redirection, caused the floor to sink and ripple where the chandelier crashed into it, absorbing some of the shock of its impact and saving the poor man's life.

She was so focused on this, she didn't notice one of the so-called unconscious figures rising to his feet, and she barely had time to twist into a defensive position as, with a small flick of his hand, he sent a colum of rock floor shooting towards her position. She crossed her arms and caught the rock colum on her metal bracers, hurling herself backwards to absorb some of the blow, but it was too strong, and she was sent sailing across the room.

She ignored the panic that being airborne always caused her, and focused. _The ground is always there, the ground is always there, the ground is always there _. . . she sensed the slab of wall she was about to crash into about a second before she did, and when she impacted it wasn't with the bone breaking thud it should have been. To anyone watching, it would have seemed that the wall had, for a split second, been turned into water, as ripples from her collision spread out like she'd hit the surface of a pond- of course, walls aren't meant to move like that, and after that split second the wall exploded with a dull boom, and a fine dust rolled across the floor of the chamber.

Under the cover of dust, which was one of Toph's great equalising techniques when facing crowds, she allowed herself the luxury of a grimace and a quiet curse as she tried to get her breath back. She had been able to stop herself from being smeared across the wall of the cave, but she was badly winded. She pulled one foot under her and got into a crouch, just in time to sense Bumi standing over her with what was probably an enormous rock suspended for a killing blow. She gritted her teeth and prepared to counter, but the attack never came. Instead, Bumi dumped the rock behind him with an enormous crash and reached into a pouch on his belt, and pulled out two hunks of what Toph knew from experience was Rock Candy. Didn't the geezer ever get tired of that stuff?

"I think that's enough for today. It's lunch time!" He popped the crystal into his mouth and started crunching away on it happily. Behind him, there was a shuffling, groaning sound as the battered men and women of Omashu's guard picked themselves up from where they had been strewn across the cavern by the battle. Three were piled on the broken throne, another three fastened halfway up a wall by a semi-circle of rock, five more amongst the debris of the room, one lying in the shattered chandelier.

"Well . . . if you think . . . you've had all . . . you can take . . . _Old Man,_" Toph wheezed. Bumi gave a hand to her and she accepted it, pulling herself painfully to her feet. The old King gave her a cheerful wallop on the back, and she winced. And he'd broken her sedge shade. Dammit, she really liked that thing. (Especially since she'd had a rim of metal embedded in it's edge, making it stylish _and _practical. And extremely dangerous.) They began walking towards the exit at the back of the hall, avoiding the various scenes of destruction. Toph noticed with some pride (and a concern she'd never admit to) that Bumi was limping slightly. She herself was just fine, apart from some bumps and bruises and, alright, the fact that she couldn't exactly breathe. The others who'd joined in seemed to be okay, too- the ones on the ground were helping unfasten their more precariously placed colleagues. There might be a few broken bones, but no-one seemed badly hurt, and anyway, it _was _a voluntary exercise; people joined because it was considered a badge of honour to have participated. Those who lasted longest took pride of place in their regiments, till their title was taken by someone else.

They arrived in the dining room, where their traditional post-brawl feast was already laid out. Toph dove in with relish, as did Bumi, while the others trickled in one by one in various states of disrepair. Behind them, courtiers and earthbending maintenance people began the process of rebuilding the throne room. They'd smashed it up pretty good this time, Toph reflected with pride. She had learned a lot from King Bumi since she'd been stationed in Omashu, though she'd initially rejected the idea that there was anything anyone else could teach her about earthbending that she couldn't figure out for herself. But Bumi's ability to move the Earth even when he wasn't in contact with it, and with only the slightest of movements, was something she was more than a little impressed by; and he in turn was fascinated by her mastery of Neutral Jing and metalbending. So he'd thrown her a feast, tried to kill her, and set her three deadly tasks, which she had completed with little difficulty. (And in a manner so graceless and unpoetical King Bumi had nearly died laughing. He'd described her solutions as 'Gordian', but Toph couldn't figure out what dried fruit had to do with anything.)

Mostly they'd just stuck to teaching each other the theory. He would make her stand on a wooden platform and hurl rocks at her until she was able to feel the earth coming towards her and block it accordingly, she would blindfold him and send spikes of rock shooting out of the ground under his feet until he learned to sense them coming. He taught her that moving the earth when not in contact with it was no different from levitating a rock after it was separate from the ground; the only difference was that she didn't know it was there. But the earth is _always _there; even when you're on water, the earth is underneath it, and once she learned to sense it, she should be able to summon it accordingly. In return for this new perspective, she locked him in a metal box and stood outside hammering it with a metal rod, trying to help him sense the impurities in the metal as she had (though she could now bend the metal itself, being that metal is just earth at any rate. You have to start somewhere, though). Admittedly this hadn't gone quite as well, just as her attempts to teach Aang to metalbend had failed.

But every once in a while she'd show up to his court room and he would try to grind her into the dirt with the larger part of his palace, and these were the sessions she liked best. It wasn't like training Aang or sparring with Katara. She could really go balls to the wall and try to kill the old guy, and she knew that he would do the same to her. Even in the Earth Rumble, she'd never had that luxury. It was exhilarating, to say the least. Also, every time she scored a hit on the old-timer, her platoon took her out on the town and bought her drinks for as long as she could hold a glass. This was normally followed by harmless destruction of some sort; a brawl if she was really lucky. Toph sighed with satisfaction. Sometimes when she reflected on her life, she couldn't believe how good it was.

"Er, Seargeant Toph, sir?" Private Leng's voice pulled her from her contented reverie. Toph sighed and took her feet off the table, planting them firmly on the floor. Leng was standing nervously at the entrance to the hall, occasionally glancing backwards at the scene of destruction in the main room behind him. In his had was a scroll of some kind. "There's an, uh, letter for you sir. Here." He strode towards her and held it out. She gave him a blank stare; or perhaps more accurately, she pointed her face at him and made it blanker than usual. Toph could feel the tremor in his hand. It was nice that the newer members of her squad were still scared of her; though she suspected it had more to do with the horror stories the more senior members enjoyed spreading than her imposing physical presence. Well, she got to have her fun, either way.

"That's nice." She pointedly did not take the canister, and had to repress a smile as the man realised his mistake and his heart began to race.

"I, uh . . . that is . . . I could, uh . . ." He looked desperately to King Bumi for help. The old man cackled and held his hand out for the canister, and Leng leant over the table with a look of almost teary gratitude on his face. Bumi stuck a half-eaten chicken leg in his mouth for his troubles, and took the tube from his hands. Toph stamped her foot and a rudimentary stool sprang up next to the man.

"Sit down, Leng. You look like you could use a drink. I mean, probably." She turned to one of the other men. "Phuong, my not-blind friend, does Leng look like he could use a drink?"

"Sure does, Sarge."

"Well, that settles it, then." Leng sat down with a thud, and Toph put a glass in front of him, giving him a friendly clap on the back and a wide grin. Leng winced. There was a lot of muscle there, for such a short girl.

Bumi had unrolled the letter by this point. He cleared his throat dramatically and began to read:

"Dear Toph,

There's good news and there's bad news. Your info on the rebel camp was good and Azula was there. But when we went to make the snatch, Ty-Lee turned on us and took off with her, and we don't know where they went. Fortunately I don't think Azula poses much of a threat to anyone but herself, but if you could keep an ear out for news we'd appreciate it. Also, if there's any word of Jun being back yet, we could use her help.

Thanks again

Suki"

Toph's jaw clenched. "Fuck." As far as she knew, Jun was still tracking the absconded wife of some Earth Kingdom politician, and since she'd been able to con the sucker into paying her by the hour, chances were she wouldn't be back as long as she could avoid it. It didn't matter what kind of state they'd found Azula in, Toph didn't think for a second that the sociopathic princess could ever be harmless. The way her heartbeat had been as slow and steady as a funeral bell, whether she was telling the most bald-faced lie or dodging the attacks of an elite bending team . . . Toph hadn't 'seen' anything like it, before or since. What was Ty-Lee thinking? Wait, scratch that- she probably hadn't been. It wasn't her way.

She pinched the bridge of her nose in thought. What was the best way forward? Omashu had become something of a crossroads since the end of the war. It's economy and trade were booming, and many people seeking refuge from the slowly mounting class tension and sporadic riots in Ba-Sing-Sei, or looking for work or food given the famines in the South East, were seeking refuge there, to the point that the majority of Toph's job involved building crude settlements outside the already crowded city of Omashu and tending to their residents; managing rationing and so on. This meant that a lot stories made their way to Omashu from all corners of the Earth Kingdom; and it was a lucky strike that had given her the info on Azula. She knew through the Army that there were Fire Nation rebels in the northern mountains; that Azula was with them she had heard from a herb merchant through sheer chance.

She stood from her chair, picking up some dumplings for later. "We should put word out that anyone who gives us good info on Princess Psychobitch and the circus freak will be rewarded. Make sure they know I can spot a liar, too; or we'll have half the city here telling us about how their cousin's girlfriend's mother's farmer-husband gave them a cabbage in Gao-Ling. I don't know, can we make wanted posters or something?" She turned to Bumi. He shrugged. She sighed, thanked him for the meal and the smackdown in her brusque way, and went out towards the settlements. It had been her day off, too.

* * *

Azula hissed in pain.

The noise almost made Ty-Lee jump. She had been hoping that the other girl would remain unconscious for this part of the procedure, but luck didn't seem to be on her side. Azula sat up unaided, and Ty-Lee blinked. This was the first time she had done so, and moreover her eyes were surprisingly lucid. "What are you _doing_?" The venom in her voice sank Ty-Lee's heart like a rock; a feeling that was becoming more and more familiar to the girl.

"Your bandages need changing, Azula." She couldn't keep the meekness from her voice. Life with the Kyoshi had been wonderfully free of subservience even though Suki was sort of in charge. But obedience to Azula was deeply ingrained, even though a new part of her wanted to resist. It was depressingly easy to slip back into old habits.

"My . . .?" Azula's eyes narrowed, and she struggled to think through a haze. The events of the last . . . Agni knew how long, were murky. She was in a cave with Ty-Lee, and had been for at least a few days, of that much she was almost certain. Before that . . . she had been in an asylum. She remembered that; it's white walls and quiet nurses, the stench of the place, the way they looked at you like you were an animal. The _shame _of it. But Azula had not been so far gone; not like those other pathetic shadows that tottered around the corridors like puppets with their strings cut. Coming in she had been a wreck, beyond despair, raging and roaring. Thinking about it curled her stomach with disgust and contempt. How could she have lost control so completely?

But even in that place, her mind had returned to her hadn't it? Slowly but surely. They had watched her carefully, and she had made sure to seem passive, but she had had a plan to escape, to take back what was hers. To kill her brother like she should have years ago, slowly, after killing Mai. The thought of his suffering had brought a twisted smirk to her face, and she had bidden her time for an opportunity that was slow in coming.

Then there was . . . nothing. Without warning her memories came to a stop, a sudden, jarring dead end like a tapestry ripped down the middle. What was left was not an absence of time or awareness; but a new world like someone had shuttered out all light and left her in a blackened cell within herself. It might have been months. It might have been a lifetime.

Every second had been agony.

Ty-Lee saw Azula's eyes roll back in her head just in time to catch the girl as she slumped to the ground. Her face was a ghastly grey colour and there was a sheen of sweat on her forehead, and she was shaking a little to the touch. The acrobat put it down to pain, settled her nerves and got back to what she had been doing, cutting away the bandages on Azula's left forearm so she could reapply the poultice. But the princess' eyes flickered open again.

"Where are we?" Ty-Lee could almost feel Azula's gaze on her, but she didn't look up.

"In the Northern Earth Kingdom, in the mountains somewhere." Come to think of it, Ty-Lee didn't know exactly where. She pursed her lips in thought. "In a cave," she decided eventually.

"Oh, _reall--"_ Azula's sneering response became a howl of pain as Ty-Lee pulled back the bandage on her arm. She jerked upright and shoved the other girl away with as much force as she could muster; which admittedly wasn't a lot, but she caught Ty-Lee off balance, and the other girl fell back with a thump. Azula struggled to regain control of herself, but Ty-Lee was giving her a hurt look that filled her with fury all the more for the slight pang of remorse it caused. "Get off me! Wasn't betraying me once enough for you, you backstabbing circus freak?"

"I didn't--"

"You didn't _what_? Didn't mean too? Didn't think about it? I should have known better than to trus-- than to turn my back on you. You and that bitch Mai, you were probably planning this for _years_. Did it feel _good_? Did you feel powerful, watching me squirm in the dirt like that, you--"

"Stop it! Please stop it, Azula." Ty-Lee was in tears now, and was more than a little frightened. The way Azula was looking at her was worse even than it had been that day at the Boiling Rock, the acidic hatred in her 'friend's' eyes was almost unhinged. "I hated seeing you that way! I hate seeing you like _this_!"

"_YOU _BROUGHT ME TO THIS!" Azula roared, and with great effort she pushed herself into a standing position. Agni, it _hurt_. Her shoulder and neck were a blaze of pain under their bandages, her arm- was her arm _broken_? Blood was trickling down her face from a cut on her nose which her sneer had opened. The world was growing hazy again, and she realised that the shadows behind Ty-Lee had coalesced into familiar forms . . . well, that was just fine. Mummy and Daddy could watch as she burned Ty-Lee to death. That was fitting, somehow.

Ty-Lee worked out what Azula was doing too late to stop it, and anyway her muscles didn't seem to be moving properly. Pinned by Azula's murderous glare, her limbs felt leaden, slow and unwieldy as the princess took a deep breath and held her hand out towards Ty-Lee's prone form.

Nothing happened.

Azula fought fear, and tried again, with similar results. It was gone. She didn't need to try again to know for sure, but she did anyway. Not a puff of smoke. Nothing. The power that had coiled through her veins since she was a child was just . . . gone.

Her rage vanished, replaced by a creeping despair. That was it, then. Not Azula. Not a Princess, not even a firebender. She was nothing. She felt that awful darkness descending again, and knew that this time, it would be forever.

Ty-Lee was shaking from head to toe, but not with terror. Azula had tried to . . . She had tried to kill her! From underneath her fear came sheer outrage. How DARE she? After everything Ty-Lee had done for her? After she gave up her whole life to save her from the mental institution she so clearly needed?! Ty-Lee didn't even know what she was going to do as she climbed to her feet. Azula was staring in bewilderment at her hand, and Ty-Lee could see the emotions draining out of her, but her pathetic appearance did not placate the acrobat now. She took two strides over to where Azula was standing and slapped her with every ounce of strength in her body.

Azula span round and fell to the floor, gasping; the sharp pain pulling her out of her self-pitying reverie. She stared up in mute amazement at Ty-Lee, who in turn was staring in mute amazement at her own hand. Then her eyes turned to Azula, and there was a steel in them that the princess had never seen before. She strode over to the princess and squatted down beside her, grabbing her by her left shoulder and pulling her into a sitting position.

She held her hand out to Azula. "Give me your arm." The command in her voice shocked Ty-Lee. She sounded like Suki doing drills, she realised.

Azula stared at her with her hand on her rapidly reddening cheek, still too stunned to react. Ty-Lee shook her hand impatiently, and Azula couldn't help but flinch.

"I said give me your arm!" Wordlessly, Azula held her arm out, and when Ty-Lee pulled the bandage back fully (and was it her or was the girl pulling a lot harder than she needed to?) and went about changing the dressing and cleaning the wounds. It hurt like hell, but the princess gritted her teeth and kept her mouth firmly shut.

Ty-Lee worked on in silence, her tongue jutting out of the corner of her mouth. The task of completely cleaning the burns on the other girl's body took several hours to complete; but Azula remained compliant throughout. In the shadows at the back of the cave, Ursa and Ozai stood in silent judgement, but Azula ignored them; for now, Ty-Lee had her full attention.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Whew. I had a bit of writer's block on this one. It's funny, I'd heard that Azula is particularly difficult to write well, but I thought because I really like character that it wouldn't be a problem. Not so! Unfortunately, it seems the things I like about Azula are qualities that I don't have or understand particularly well; like ambition, rage, self-hatred, bitchiness . . . (and frankly, if these are qualities that I find attractive, then writer's block is the least of my worries, lol.) I'm too mellow.

Still, all in all I'm actually pretty happy with this chapter! It was my biggest disappointment with the finale that when Bumi and Toph finally met it was not treated like the momentous occasion it was. I think those two would get on like a house on fire, in the most literal sense possible. And I like military!Toph. It kind of fits. :D


End file.
